A Lynx's Pearl
by Blueberry Absinth
Summary: Nothing's impossible, except for a blue rose. Living in a dream, he wonders whether it was the right direction to take... eventual Namiku
1. Chapter 1

**A few notes:**

**This is going to be an AU, in which Namine won't be participating in the original plot. Which means Kairi still remains the Nobody-But-Not-Quite-Because-She-Doesn't-Have-Darkness-In-Her-Heart and Sora's lost memory is repaired by time – he just slept and waited until everything was cleared up. Someday I may sit down and write all the plotholes that I have to fill, but not some of these days.**

**And one warning: This. Will. Take. A. While. xD In any meaning conceivable: it'll take time in between updates (probably), it'll take chapters to start the romance and it'll take time in the universe, HECK, it'll take time for Nami to show up~ I hope you're patient xD **

**Discl.: I don't own it. Haha.**

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Of impossibility and dreams

...

.

"Hey, Sora."

"Mmm?"

"Don't you think something's changed in Riku?"

"What?"

"He seems… bored to death."

* * *

The door made a soft 'clink' as the key was turned in the lock. Each wooden board creaked with sounds, unique to old houses and the sun was drawing out the form of the windows on the floor. It was a degree or so cooler here than outside and Riku was really happy about that simple fact. Sure, diving was refreshing, especially if you went deeper in the colder depths of the sea, away from the heat, but the long walk home had taken away the pleasant feeling and now sweat was covering him whole.

His toes and feet made an unidentified noise as he slid his sandals off and proceeded on to his usual procedures before a shower. His clothes made a soft 'swish' as he took them off. The water made soothing 'tap, tap, tap'-s as he let the coldest of all and let his body.

Summer was kind of unbearable these days.

It too hot to do anything besides search for something that might cool him.

But Riku couldn't stay inside and do nothing. He felt as if in prison on these islands, the house was worse.

Diving was a sport that gave a little freedom, as opposed to everything else. The ocean depths weren't that boring as Selphie always put them and provided him with more amusement than everything that land would ever hold.

But he wasn't a merman – he couldn't live underwater and he was _definitely_ not going back to Atlantica. The mental scars still resided.

It wasn't a plus that there wasn't anyone who did want to do anything more interesting than usual. Kairi was gone, having to go on additional courses for school. She hadn't been able to pass her classes like him and Sora. So, key-blade boy, being the love-struck idiot he was, refused to go out and was apparently intent on sitting around moping in his house – how he survived in that oven, called his home without any ice-cream or ice or cold drinks was beyond Riku. And it wasn't just Sora – everyone, absolutely everyone had hidden away from the weather and didn't want to even show their noses outside, even to get _frickin'_ ice-creams. It was a stretch to think that someone would even think about going outside to do something.

If Riku was someone else, then probably he would be doing the same. But his mind, his body, heck even his _soul_, if he were to believe that crap, wanted to do something, to go out, to just run at least. Just… to be free. Not restrained by everything and everyone and school.

Coming calmly from his reverie, the teen decided that it was strange to stand in the middle of his room and, still very calm and collected, he plopped himself on his bed, intent on analyzing himself. It wasn't very normal for him to be calm, with that boiling energy of his. He was sure he brought new meaning to the phrase 'wild youths'. Or something like that.

Or maybe he just wanted to have human company, not some inanimate objects, somehow turned animate by the heat. When was the last time he saw someone the same race, apart from his family? A week ago? A week and a half? He didn't even remember.

Every human being was used to human contact, he guessed. It was normal for him, competitive and such, to want to have people around him, to prove he's better and such. Even though…

Even though the reason he became like that had long evaporated, he still acted that way. Even before the whole ruckus for the last - were they two? – years, Kairi was floating slowly and surely out of his reach and more toward Sora. He liked to think he had matured out of his crush and now knew he was past these things and happy that his best friends were like _that_. Even with the fact that Sora got all mopey without her.

What would it be if he was in love again? It would be fun, he mused, to spoil her ruthlessly, to talk endlessly and stuff, as he gazed at the ceiling. Surely, it wouldn't be as boring as now, that he had enough evidence to back up as a sure statement.

What would it feel to be like a prince? Like in those fairytales-

And it was the time when he decided that it was too much. Girls, girls, who needed them, unless as friends? He wasn't really successful in that category. He always lost his chances, not only with Kairi, but with everyone.

Deciding yet again to stop randomly contemplating stuff and remembering bits and pieces from the past, Riku moved yet again on his bed and then chose to stop rolling in the sheets and being all depressed and so on.

He stood up to go get himself an ice-cream. And managed to keep himself from the bed for five whole minutes. Which was an accomplishment today, apparently.

Not caring how dirty his sheets would later, he dropped on his sheets and restarted eating it. And probably examining his mental condition. It was fun.

Good, he'd made himself sound like a crazed person. Though that might be true as well. One that went through his adventures would surely come out at least a little emotionally broken. He just hoped the damage wasn't that big.

Riku, shifted uncomfortably, the sugary taste still prominent in his mouth. Was he that bad, to go that further? To think that he was mentally weak? But it was sort of true – he was refused to hold upon the Keyblade after all, and then his descend into darkness and then Ansem and all those things on and on. Everything was a small wound…

No, no, no, no and no. Riku, the hero of darkness didn't think like that, he argued with himself, while yet again switching a position. Riku, the hero of darkness, held his experiences in high regard, used them as a lesson, knew that they had created what he was, that they shaped him to be this. Riku, hero of darkness, was a knight whose powers were feared by many for their destructive power over everyone – including the user. Riku, hero of darkness was a wise person, confident in his abilities and power.

Riku wasn't a hero of darkness, and the one that had once called him like that, was long dead.

He was just a small, scared boy.

And then he shifted again in his bed and realized that there had to be something off if he couldn't find a relaxing position while it took him a second or so make himself comfortable. Moving again, he realized that there was probably a small round object underneath his mattress.

With the fairytale 'The Princess and the Pea' in mind, he slipped off the bed and, moving his mattress up, he looked for the obnoxious 'pea'. He understood now that it was easy to feel a pea from under his mattress. Poor princess, he thought randomly, eyes still finding nothing, even a peasant woman could have been able to feel the pea. There was nothing special about her.

It was sort of sad too.

It took him some time until he found the offending object and it wasn't a pea. It was a pearl, something more royal and stupider than pea. And why was he still thinking about the 'pea' was beyond him.

Content that the annoyance was now gone, he jumped up on the bed again and looked at the pearl and tried to make an enourmous description of it. But couldn't succeed.

What was it to say? It was white, with a few yellow lines, etched in the mass and nothing more.

Riku suddenly remembered that he had gone diving before. Probably it was then that he'd caught it and then forgotten about it and then it had slipped and then somehow went under his mattress. Yeah, right. What had he been smoking?

Regardless of thoughts, he continued gazing at the sea jewel, as if it was something worth wasting his time.

… Wait, was he wasting time?

… Damn.

Grasping the pearl in his right hand, he went on tidying himself up in order to go out and dive – that was better than lying in boredom anyway. After some thought, he put the sparkly little 'pea' on his nightstand. He was going to take it to a jeweler's store tomorrow.

Probably.

From then on, everything was a daze.

He didn't notice how he went through his activities, the diving, going home, talking with his family and everything else. He didn't notice when he crashed on his bed, without even undressing, the promise to himself forgotten.

* * *

He was dreaming obviously. There was that strange haze, unique for dreams, covering his eyes. And the colours were too vivid underneath the fog, the vibrant scarlet of the roses contrasting with the white air.

Well, dreams did tend to have strange colourings.

Even Riku, as bad at coming up with excuses as he was, could say that was a lame excuse even by his standards. While dreams did tend to be darker or brighter than the real world (whichever from the vast number of real worlds it was), there was no way that the air was _white_ and he could see the _red_ roses. No, red couldn't describe them perfectly – _scarlet_ was the only colour powerful enough to be used. Even though there were repeats in his mental speech.

With a small start, Riku realized that the only thing he could see through the white sheen of air was the _scarlet_ of the roses. Even the leaves and the branches of the closest plants were invisible. That had happened in the last minute, apparently.

And he couldn't do anything, not calling upon his darkness, lest something should worsen. Seeing white was better than seeing dark for his sanity overall, despite what his instincts told him.

Ever the curious boy he was, Riku tried to move to explore the place his dream was taking place but tripped over his own steps even before taking a step away from his place. His eyes searched for any difference in the monotonous white, but he couldn't find anything. The white was white, some sort of dirty white, not enough to give off a headache, mixed up with enough yellow-pink-whatever to create a creamy colour, but not close enough to be treated like a deep champagne…

… Oh, dear light and darkness, did he just use 'champagne' as a type of colour? Did he just specify it to being _deep champagne_? Or, rather not, because as he thought above, the air wasn't exactly champagne, but- Sweet power of darkness, did he just do it again? The place was doing strange stuff on his brain.

Deciding yet again to try and explore his dream as seen that here nothing was going to happen and the action wasn't going to take place here, Riku turned to gaze at the fog thoughtfully. Apparently his subconscious was waiting for him to act until the real part of the nightmare could come. Nah, probably it wasn't a nightmare - how many nightmares had taken place in a rose garden?

…Now that he thought about it, rose gardens did make some dramatic setting.

All the better, he guessed. Nightmares were fun – especially if he was fighting something. That could account as a dream for him.

Suddenly his searching eyes fell upon a splotch of whiter white somewhere in a random direction. It was the bad white – the one that made black spots in his eyes and made his head swim. There was something in there. Probably another rose. Nothing special.

But the headache that was forming was pretty strong. All right, not just 'pretty' strong, very strong.

He turned the other way.

There was a single blue rose, far away in the distance, that he could see clearer than every other, despite the distance.

* * *

He came from the embrace of sleep slowly, as not per usual, not exactly wanting to wake up. For a few moments he lied there, eyes closed, the blue rose and the garden imprinted underneath his lids. He hadn't wanted to wake up, why had he?

Easy – because, he had wished to stay.

The distance between him and the impossibly-blue rose had been so big… and he couldn't do anything to get it smaller. As searching for fun and challenge as he was, he wanted to go back to sleep and to the garden and find the way to go there and-

And what was he going to do when he reached it? Dance happily? Pick it up? No, it was too nice-looking to be sentenced to decay.

It wasn't that much about its appearance, the fact that it was 'pretty', he guessed. But it would prove that he's accomplished a thing, something that he'd been denied at first.

He turned the other way and squeezed his eyes. The last thing he saw was the pearl on his nightstand.

That day, he didn't rise from his bed.

Nor did he do it the next day. And the next.

* * *

"Riku hasn't come out from his home for a week now."

"What do we do?"

"…"

* * *

**As, some wise people say (you know who you are :P) metaphors are fun~~~ **

**So-ooo, what do ya say? Good, bad, horrendous? Dialogue-less, plot-less? I'd love to hear from ya, so do send a review, 'kayy?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Too. Much. Dialogue. 'dies'**

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A Black Rose

...

Yet again he tried to take a step that direction and yet again he failed.

Sending a glare toward the impossible flower, knowing he was powerless, knowing he was being defeated over and over again, Riku gathered himself up the foggy floor. He didn't want the easy bounty, the red roses ('scarlet' had gone quickly to simply 'red'), he wanted the unreachable. Yet, every time he tried to go closer, he failed, he tripped down on the uneven stones. He had scrapped his knees quite a few times but he never noticed anything in the real world so it was okay.

No. correction. It wasn't okay. Nothing was okay.

He wanted to reach that stupid rose and just get done with that. but noo, apparently it had decided to be annoying and pig-headed and be unreachable and everything. Simply to annoy him.

After trying for the n-th time and falling down again, Riku stubbornly decided to stay on the ground and glare at the rose. Over the few, hmm dreams it seemed that the distance between them was different. At times, it'd come closer, as if concerned what was happening to him, at other times, it'd shy away as if afraid that something had happened to him and he had become scary.

It was acting strange. Even given the fact that this was a dream. Especially with that fact.

Great, now he was talking about that biologically-impossible rose as if it were a human with emotions and a heart and stuff. Oh, dear light and darkness.

Deciding that laying back was sort of uneventful, Riku stood up and tried once again, this time grasping the roses. Their thorns.

It was sick how symbolic that sounded.

Feeling a drop of blood fall from his hand, followed by another and another, he lifted his leg. The motion was rather graceful, nothing hindering the movement. No problem for now…

* * *

'Riku!'

The call was rather feminine even though it was obvious the caller wasn't a female. Just a little too shrilly.

Dreading what may lay in front of him, Riku slowly opened his eyes. And almost shrieked himself. In from of his very eyes, stood the most terrific nightmare, come alive. Moreover, it was straddling him and its eyes were burning wide with darkness.

He blinked. Some orange hair came out.

Ah, it was just Wakka.

Which was a nightmare. What was he doing? On top of him?

Summoning his powers, stiff from sleeping, Riku tried to push the stupid guy from his bed. Seriously, who was this dumb and dense to straddle someone from the same gender, he thought irritated as he threw the idiot away from him. Too bad he couldn't somehow cut the idiot's most prized possession – the bang that he simply loved and probably cemented everyday to make it look the way it was.

Wanting to mutter a few choice words, the sleepy teen rose from his comfortable nest to glare at the idiot who was now stupidly watching him, a dumb look in his eyes. And not only was he not alone, the idiots Sora and Tidus were looking at him too, from safe distances. Apparently Wakka had been the biggest idiot to try to wake him up.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized he was overusing 'idiot' and its synonyms. Too bad the idiots deserved it. Off, there he went again…

Regardless of being an idiot, the guy had managed to wake him up. Which wasn't good. Riku could feel the dark aura start to radiate from him.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty has woken up," Sora tried to lighten up the atmosphere, but failed with an epic undertone.

"Shut up," Riku said with the tone of a PMS-ing Sleeping Beauty. With a grumpy expression plastered on his face, he stood up from his nice, comfy bed and went on the boring chore of dressing himself. He vaguely wondered who had let three guys into the house, then stopped himself; it was probably his mother.

"And why are you here?" he asked, still grumpy, putting on a random shirt, found somewhere in his room. He vaguely thought that he hadn't tidied his normally perfect room for quite some time now. Noticing that the shirt on him was dirty, he tossed it away and renewed his search for something to put on.

The idiots did nothing but watch him as he looked over stuff, tumbled on piles of things and searched through clothing.

"Riku, you've definitely changed," Sora once again tried to take the lead on a conversation; too bad he wasn't especially brilliant at doing this. While he certainly could cheer up even the biggest emo, it was rather Kairi whose words could reach him and make him react to them.

His mind shuddered because of the reason why she was able to do that. Or rather, used to be able to do. Now, he was a new person and he was more open and nice guy on the whole. He listened people more and was more accepting of others' opinions. He was open for new friendships and was happier that he had the friends he had now.

"It's called progress," Riku grinned at his best friend and pulled over a clean t-shirt, but noticed that it was a really embarrassing shade of pink and green so he took it off and started over again. "It's better than staying the same person. Everyone gets different with time."

The three other boys looked at him strangely, mouths agape, eyes bigger than usual and Riku was forced to take back his last statement. Those three would always be the lovable idiots they were. Simple, harmless, fun.

Unlike that stupid rose.

"Who are you and what have you done to Riku?" Sora asked jokingly but the question wasn't for laughing. With a smile in his voice, he was saying that the other Riku, the cockier and the more withdrawn one was gone, deleted from the face of Destiny Island and every other world out there.

He was replaced by a perfected replica. A replica that had everything the old Riku was good at and excelled at everything the old Riku was bad at.

And the same time the replica was yet again obsessing over a challenge. He was supposed to have gotten over that.

"I've just gotten older and smarter," he smirked, carefully building up the façade of a just woken up teenager who went overboard with cynicism and sarcasm.

The others grinned. Really, they were just too easy to be fooled. At least Kairi posed something of a challenge. He finally found a suitable t-shirt.

"Today we're taking you out," came to him the cheerful voice of Tidus.

Surprised like hell, Riku looked at the gold-haired boy through the hole that was actually meant for his left arm. After rolling in bed for an unmarked amount of time (though he was sure that the others in his room in the moment knew exactly how long he had been slacking off) it was sort of unsettling to go see the outside world.

"C'mon, buddy, ya haven't gone out for almost a month now," Wakka added in, eyes somehow downcast and sad. He was probably sad that his play buddy was gone now.

"When you closed yourself from the world, we got really worried," suddenly Sora caught his attention, "It's good that I couldn't contact Kairi, because she'd have gone nuts. You should really be more considerate."

And yet another lecture on what he should be. But Sora wasn't Kairi and his words had no effect on his conscience, unlike hers. If she were here, he'd already be apologizing to everyone, wearing a true smile. But no, now he was a hypocritical bastard who pretended for his friends' sake.

"I'm sorry I worried you," a faked smile, shrug of his shoulders and everything was fine "I just had some issues to clear up. Everything's fine now," that was a lie. He hadn't cleared up any issues – just the already known fact that he was a sore loser.

He had gambled his friends on a game, that he had had to win, but had failed with his usual grace. While this game was nothing of the caliber of the other time when he almost lost his friends, they still could have left him. This new game: it wasn't something very enourmous, just him and a blue rose, something unreachable, in a duet, in a lone rose garden, surrounded by fog. The only danger present was him getting obsessed with it yet again and giving his everything yet again. He would make the same mistake once again and he was probably doing it at the moment.

He was both a sore loser and a hard learner.

"We're not accepting a 'no'," Sora grinned playfully and Riku found himself grinning without any problem. He had to stop being the way he was if he wanted to deserve the wonderful friends he had. Friends who still hadn't left him.

"That's a great idea, actually," he smiled again, this time to the other two boys. He found out it was harder to smile at them. Regardless he beamed.

On the way out, he paid attention to talk just enough even at subjects that didn't particularly interest him or for which he had no particular opinion.

* * *

"Did you see him? It's Riku! He's finally here! I finally see him"

"Yeah…"

"I heard from Selphie that he hasn't gone out for a month!"

"Well, he should've stayed in his home more…"

"Why-yy? He's a nice guy."

"When I went up to him to say hi and chat a little, he acted all cold and stuff…"

"Aww, he just needs some candy and chocolate to sweeten up his life!"

"Go on and try to give him. He's just a grumpy, bored guy…"

* * *

It was noisy. Too noisy.

The three idiots had taken him first to get some ice-cream. As they sat and licked the dripping sweet stuff, they talked about all kinds of things and Riku learned that after a few minutes their ceaseless chatter became somehow soothing to the ear and he found himself looking far away in the distance, daydreaming. Daydreaming about a rose garden. He wondered what sort of progress he could make as he was in the waking world. He could search for roses on the islands but he doubted he'd find anything: here, it was too hot for roses.

The actual appearance of the roses in his dream was something strange. A rose symbolized something feminine, while there was nothing feminine in him. He was sure he pulled off the long hair very nice – masculine looking and all.

He was interrupted in his mental musings as Sora decided that he had been silent enough and added him to the conversation, which was about – bleh – girls. Riku was quick to change the subject.

Then on they went by the sea to do whatever came to mind. Tidus did try to make them go diving but his request was quickly refused, the most heated answer coming from Riku who didn't want another pearl and new nightmares. He had enough. There they started making the rules of the game Wakka and Tidus were developing and spent the majority of the afternoon trying to find the perfect name.

And, in the evening, they had found themselves attending a party. Tidus had gotten himself drunk and was now moping in one of the corners that he was never going to get a girlfriend, few girls swooning anxiously in a rhythm around him.

Riku could only laugh at their antics and try to find Sora who'd understand that he needed salvation from the girl who had invaded his personal space (which had become more personal a month or so ago when he'd found the pearl). The girl's name was Mizu and apparently she was obsessed with stories because in the short time they were together talking, she'd managed to tell him a dozen or so local (and not-so local) legends. Problem was, while she didn't lack enthusiasm, her way recounting was very, very boring and Riku was dozing off the third second she started a new story. The only thing he did to encourage her was nod from time to time but obviously it was enough for her.

However after she finished the story about the squid which hiccupped, a new story wasn't started. Riku, who by that moment was used with her talking, looked up to stare in her eyes. She was ogling him, a giggle on her lips.

"Aren't there more?" he simply asked, preferring to have her talking, rather than the meaningless chatter around her. "I'd like to hear more."

Another giggle. Tidus was better, even if he was dead-drunk by now. Riku threw a glance his direction and saw he was in the same place. Good.

But seriously, that girl was getting on his nerves.

"A few days ago, I heard a pretty nice story," she grinned as he sent her yet another false smile, to encourage her "You know the guy who sells ice-creams, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded off, not quite wondering what not about him.

"Well, he told me this story," Mizu giggled yet again and he vaguely wondered why he was doing that: yeah, she was better than nothing, "You know the cave on the kid's island, right?"

He nodded once more time: there lied the imprint, the evidence of Sora and Kairi's love.

"Where kids scribble?"

"Yeah," she smiled at his taking a more active part of the conversation and continued on "There, he told me, sometimes, on special occasions, an old, wooden door can be found."

"Yess. Go on," he knew about the door, he'd gone through it after all. But if someone did that too, it would be the end of him. Ah well, Riku decided. It's not like there weren't people on these islands that needed to be gone. Wiped from the face of the worlds. He wouldn't care less if they were consumed by Heartless (Heartless continued to exist even after their quest but Mickey said that was normal). He was fed up with having to care about everyone, as he had had to do during his journey to find the light.

"And he told me something quite interesting," she raised a finger, looking really stupid doing that "he told me that if you went through the door it would take you to a specific bay. I asked the man which bay it was," was she a myth-gatherer or something? "And he took me there. You know the second one to the south when you come out of the main entrance of the cave, right?"

Riku nodded somehow drowsy as he listened to directions and merely registered them to his mind for later use, not even trying to picture what she was talking about.

"That, he pointed at it, is the one. Poor guy, he probably missed a lot buyers of ice-cream, while taking me there" she grinned and with little to no giggle ended her story and no so peaceful silence descended on the duo, Riku refusing to say anything, she pensive.

Islanders were so stupid: why did they insist on making legends and stories and tales for every bay and creek and hill and everything? Didn't they anything else to do? That was just plain stupid.

"You know something," he'd have preferred it a lot more if she stayed silent but that wouldn't be Mizu's style "There's yet another story connected to the same bay. Which is why I find it very puzzling," even though she never said she was confused about something "Usually there's just one myth for a place. Thousands variations, yes, but never two completely different stories," she thought a little more.

Riku wedged the two possibilities in front of him: to ask her what the story was and endure yet another badly-told tale or endure her musings. He decided to go with the former.

"And what's that other story, you speak of?" he was really curious, yes. Really, really curious. So curious, the worlds stopped spinning in order to examine the curiosity of a Keyblade wielder. Ah, the beauties of sarcasm…

Her eyes lit up.

"Well, there's this old, old story," she started with eagerness "About a fisher who one day caught a fish," wow, a fisher caught a fish. Who saw _that_ coming? "However, after it was cooked and given to his child, the kid ate it and a pearl lodged in his throat," his ears heard the word 'pearl' and suddenly he was on edge, "The boy died, of course. Hating the fact that he and the pearl were the cause of the death, the now crazy fisher tore the pearl from his child's throat and threw it back in the sea, cursing it with nightmares for the one who found it again," she finished, giggling again.

A few seconds passed with her looking at him expectantly. He had mind-blinked out.

That was… incredible, he reasoned with himself. Too incredible to be true. The story was most probably a fiction, a fairytale, something that the people thought up for their kids to scare them into the 'right path'. Even if it was true, would the grief of a simple man have had such an influence on a thing? Even if it were true, the pearl would have descended on the bottom of the ocean, and then it would have been covered by the millions layers of sand. There was no sure fact that the pearl form the story and his pearl would be the same, no matter how similar they sounded (plus, how can a pearl last a few centuries?)

… right?

It wasn't his problem that the pieces fell too easily into their place, like parts of mosaic in the trained hands of a professional. He could almost see it in his mind's eye, each scintillating glass put in the right place, to create a grotesque picture. Because when it came to his mind games and past wrongdoings, nothing was pretty. Not at all.

In the back of his mind, Riku was sure he'd gone nuts if he believed the words of a total stranger and let them go and cut straight into his heart. In the front of his mind, he decided it wouldn't hurt if he asked a question or so.

And stop with the metaphors. Especially that.

"That sounds more like a ghost story, one that should be told in front of the fire," he laughed and, just to amuse himself, smiled more broadly at her. That'd change the boring routine even if for just a second.

"Don't you think?"

He got a giggle as a response. That almost destroyed his fun and made him drop every charade. Almost.

"Well, it does seem poetic and all," she chuckled and then continued on "The strangest thing is that this story is regarded as true. Divers go on and search for the pearl even if that will place the curse upon them, according to the myth. You should know – don't you practise diving too?"

"While I do practise it, no I don't know about any myth-connected pearl-hunting," he hadn't heard about such a thing actually, "Usually, I dive alone."

He quickly shut off any part of his mind that told him the last sentence was symbolic. He… was just not in the mood for arguing with himself.

"Aha," she grinned, "I know that there used to be rumors that it had been found."

He looked up. And smiled slowly, flirtously.

"Really?"

She nodded, blushing slightly "A year or so ago, there was this 'caboom'," she illustrated by throwing her arms in the air, "Everyone knew and talked about it, but now I dunno how you don't know about it. Probably you've been somewhere else," she shrugged, "Everyоne was talking about that. And then, out of a sudden, everyone quieted. Now it's just a superstition."

It was a superstition. It was surely a superstition. Mickey had never told him about the darkness in people's hearts being able to place curses on inanimate objects. It seemed logical that there were no such things; otherwise they'd be stumbling upon cursed things every second.

Or maybe the strongest, the darkest, the most powerful, the most unrepentant darkness was able to do so. Maybe the sheer hatred that came with lurking within the darkness was able to go into objects and rest there and try to corrupt people. That was one probability.

No, the boy who'd lied within the shadows for enough, reasoned with himself. No one around him was cursed: after all his darkness was a part of him, his weapon, his acquaintance. He had to grow his darkness, to make it more powerful, like a patient gardener waiting for the small, ugly, brown seed to bloom completely into the scarlet brilliance that was a rose.

Riku was waiting for a black rose to bloom and spread its perfume in the air. Black, breath-taking in beauty, hiding perfection between its petals. Still not fully blossomed, he had to water it so it was able to grow up into something amazing. And amazing would it be.

Somewhere in his mind he registered that he'd used the girl's fangirly behaviour in order to find out more and another part blamed him for that. He wasn't used to such guilt.

"That's very strange," Riku echoed, noticing Sora moving through the crowd, at least a little drunk too.

Excusing himself and going to help his friend, Riku found he was rather happy that the spiky-haired Keyblade wielder was alcohol intolerant and crashed after the first glass of… whichever alcohol. He wouldn't have endured another story of Mizu's even though the last legend had been really interesting, even though he felt guilty. There was a fascination with pearls going on with the invisible forces of this island, apparently.

Gently, he helped his friend to his home, tolerating his ramblings of a drunkard for once and cursing himself that he'd let him get drunk. Kairi would so totally kill him.

The only good thing was that Sora was a happy drunk – he never stood up to pick fights, to badmouth people. The worst thing he sometimes did was some… rather embarrassing songs.

But the usual thing he did was angst about something overly stupid like "I didn't say 'hi' to Selphie today. She'll be upset with me." During such times, not only was he mopey, but he was also very stubborn and only Kairi could slap him back in reality. Too bad she wasn't close by.

But, damn it was he a dead weight.

"Hey, Riku."

"Be quiet, for once," mentioned boy growled, muscles tense from almost carrying him. He was out of shape: he used to be able to carry a drunk Sora.

"Did somethin' happen? Afta ya came back, somethin' changed in ya," of course something happened but he wasn't telling anything, "I knowl that by now ya've gotten tired of people tellin' tha', but I wana knowl. Afta all, ain't I your closest friend? Ya can always tell me and Kairi. Righ'?"

No. He couldn't.

The only thing he did was turn off his mind, lock it up, seal it, making sure nobody was able to get to what he was thinking. It was creepy how much Sora and his offsprings could drill into his brain.

Sora always hit the sorest spots in his conscience, as did Roxas. Both of them held equal amounts of the world's salt and had an instinct to put it right in his wounds and left him to lick them, merely hoping that that would suffice to heal them up but never succeeding. That stupid, stupid guilt.

Xion made him think and wonder about his decisions – in a more feminine, elegant way, she'd been able to change him.

Riku took his friend to his house and did everything he always did – help him to the toilet, stay by his side while he vomited and everything else, all the while musing why that sort of routine which was usually sort of calming (because, hey, who didn't like vomiting people?) had become so bland. Usually he'd laugh his ass off at his drunken antics (the thing with the oyster and the flag still had him rolling on the floor from laughing) and poke harmless fun at his helplessness above the toilet.

Now he was disgusted during the time spent in the bathroom and thought of the ramblings as stupid (which they were – what was funny about a pineapple and a lampshade?). He waited for him to fall asleep impatiently, randomly musing about changes and a rose blossoming into a full beauty.

After the boy had fallen asleep, to chase a certain skirt in his dreams, Riku silently gathered himself up, and with haste, unknown before ran home to fall into Morpheus's sweet embrace. He wanted to go into the garden, to search for a way, to go and stumble and fall toward the blue rose.

He dreamt of nothing that night.

* * *

**Isn't it fun to stereotypy characters? xDxD 'does epic fail on humor'**

**I want to point something out – in this chapter Riku's much more depressed than the first one. The dreams aren't a good influence ^.^**

**There was this story, about the three idiots… I've read it as a fairytale/folklore tale~ As seen now there'll be a fairytale hint here and there apparently. xD**

**Seriously, in my region (very mountainous) there's a legend for every frickin' turn. Here a bride had committed a suicide, there in a haunted house the lamps flicker on and off from time to time etcetera, etcetera. Wtf? **

**So-oo how's this chappie? Am I moving too fast? Too slow?**


End file.
